Dr. Patricia Turner Offers Three Pieces of Advice to Medical Graduates at UChicago

ACS Executive Director and CEO Patricia L. Turner, MD, MBA, FACS, delivered the commencement address at The University of Chicago (UChicago) Pritzker School of Medicine’s 35th Annual Divisional Academic Ceremony last month. The event, which invests each graduate with an academic hood, marked the successful completion of medical school by the 81 graduates in the class of 2025.

Dr. Turner welcomed the new physicians into medicine with “my most heartfelt congratulations,” as well as several insights gleaned from her own career. In addition to her role as the Executive Director and CEO of the ACS, this has included several years in the Department of Surgery at UChicago, where she currently is a clinical professor of surgery.

Her remarks began with a tribute to her mother, who Dr. Turner called “my biggest cheerleader and advocate.”

She described her mother, who was a junior high school math and science teacher, as having a “singular focus on education,” and said this mindset served as a key inspiration and example for her own path toward surgery. At her own commencement from medical school, Dr. Turner said, “Graduating was not just my accomplishment but ours.”

The example of her mother’s loving support prefaced advice on how new physicians might excel in the often-challenging medical profession. “What will help you thrive are your relationships with the people who love and support you, who, without exception, want what is best for you,” she advised, adding that graduates should cherish their families, friends, professors, and mentors, and strive to become equally supportive of others.

“Very few achieve pinnacles of success entirely independently,” she said.

Dr. Turner also guided the newly minted physicians to “strive to love what you do,” as a key aspect of thriving and excelling in a challenging medical profession.

“My advice is not that you can follow your heart, but that you should and even must follow your heart. Your excitement will inspire you to invest the work that allows your excellence to manifest,” she said.

Finally, Dr. Turner strongly suggested an unfailing dedication to professionalism. She emphasized that this includes communicating calmly in times of stress, adding an insight she gained from a legendary surgeon: “In the words of my chair during residency, Dr. LaSalle D. Leffall, who was also a Past President of the American College of Surgeons, ‘We are all required to demonstrate equanimity under duress.’”

Throughout her 15-minute speech, Dr. Turner underscored the personal and professional fulfillment and service to others the new graduates can achieve in medicine: “Your path will bring you great pride, many moments of satisfaction, and incredible professional fulfillment. Indeed, I believe there is no higher calling than to be a physician.”

The speech received a hearty round of applause at its conclusion.

M. Sophia Newman is the Medical Writer and Speechwriter in the ACS Division of Integrated Communications in Chicago, IL.